4 ms·

I've long thought that the cost of college should be fronted by the colleges themselves should you get accepted. Once you graduate, you owe the college a percen

by MSM 7y ago

I've long thought that the cost of college should be fronted by the colleges themselves should you get accepted. Once you graduate, you owe the college a percentage of your income in perpetuity (say, 2%- nothing crazy, and you graduate debt free). This flips everything on its head in a good way. Colleges then have no incentive to give people degrees in fields they know there's no future employment opportunities for, it's in their best interests to give you the best education they can, they expand and contract departments based on employment demand, and they would actively seek to find employment opportunities for alumni. I honestly don't know who it would hurt other than loan companies.

ggm 7y ago
That's indentured labour. It's in a lot of sci fi. It's also what serfs do.
- MSM 7y ago
  That's quite a reach. How is taking a small percentage of your income and being debt free somehow more of a burden than graduating with 100k in debt that cannot be wiped away even in bankruptcy?
  - ggm 7y ago
    yes it is a reach. But the quality for me, is that student debt in the state is objectively better because its (a) equalised nationally and (b) subject to administrative review automatically. student debt in the college funds is a recipe for lack of oversight, arbitrary process, contract-law, and very probably abuse by rich families (e.g. the get into uni tricks they play alread: here in Australia a prime ministers daughter miraculously was awarded a $60,000 "grant" from the college for her study...) The problem is the debt? yes. The fix is not to socialize the debt into a contract with the institution. Thats just "market will fix" behaviour. I think the problem is "why are we allowing tertiary education to become this expensive in the first place" Debt bondage is actually a thing. It has a long history in trade unionism, and in existing work conditions in India. Of course Stanford has no intention of being the serf-lord, but if the debt cycle is now bound to your choice of study, Stanford is saying "no, I've decided you will be a dental hygenist at 3% refund, if you insist on being an M.D. its going to be 5%" and before you know it, discretionary spending has vanished. Working-poor bad-risk people will be driven to expedient outcomes, and excluded from higher life outcomes because they are not fundable. Thats fair? No. Equality of access is actually important.
Ductapemaster 7y ago
A similar structure is available already. It's called an Income Sharing Agreement. Example: Company: https://vemo.com/ https://vemo.com/ Article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-09/college-grads-sell-stakes-in-themselves-to-wall-street https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-09/college-g...
- MSM 7y ago
  Very interesting, thank you for sharing! This is has a little twist on what I'd like to see, but I had no idea something like this "graduate market" existed. I'll have to dig into this a little bit more.
irrational 7y ago
I think in general society would be hurt by the loss to the arts, literature, pure mathematics, and other degrees that don't have high paying jobs.
- MSM 7y ago
  I agree, but I also think there is some demand for those fields. The problem is they often become a sort of catch-all for people that don't have a particular focus while they're still in school which doesn't really benefit anyone a lot of times

by MSM 7y ago

ggm 7y ago

That's indentured labour. It's in a lot of sci fi. It's also what serfs do.

MSM 7y ago
That's quite a reach. How is taking a small percentage of your income and being debt free somehow more of a burden than graduating with 100k in debt that cannot be wiped away even in bankruptcy?
- ggm 7y ago
  yes it is a reach. But the quality for me, is that student debt in the state is objectively better because its (a) equalised nationally and (b) subject to administrative review automatically. student debt in the college funds is a recipe for lack of oversight, arbitrary process, contract-law, and very probably abuse by rich families (e.g. the get into uni tricks they play alread: here in Australia a prime ministers daughter miraculously was awarded a $60,000 "grant" from the college for her study...) The problem is the debt? yes. The fix is not to socialize the debt into a contract with the institution. Thats just "market will fix" behaviour. I think the problem is "why are we allowing tertiary education to become this expensive in the first place" Debt bondage is actually a thing. It has a long history in trade unionism, and in existing work conditions in India. Of course Stanford has no intention of being the serf-lord, but if the debt cycle is now bound to your choice of study, Stanford is saying "no, I've decided you will be a dental hygenist at 3% refund, if you insist on being an M.D. its going to be 5%" and before you know it, discretionary spending has vanished. Working-poor bad-risk people will be driven to expedient outcomes, and excluded from higher life outcomes because they are not fundable. Thats fair? No. Equality of access is actually important.

Ductapemaster 7y ago

A similar structure is available already. It's called an Income Sharing Agreement. Example: Company: https://vemo.com/ https://vemo.com/ Article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-09/college-grads-sell-stakes-in-themselves-to-wall-street https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-09/college-g...

MSM 7y ago
Very interesting, thank you for sharing! This is has a little twist on what I'd like to see, but I had no idea something like this "graduate market" existed. I'll have to dig into this a little bit more.

irrational 7y ago

I think in general society would be hurt by the loss to the arts, literature, pure mathematics, and other degrees that don't have high paying jobs.

MSM 7y ago
I agree, but I also think there is some demand for those fields. The problem is they often become a sort of catch-all for people that don't have a particular focus while they're still in school which doesn't really benefit anyone a lot of times